Advent Wreath

 ~ Advent Wreath ~

Merry Christmas! Can you believe it's almost here? It seems every year I start earlier and earlier only to have Christmas rush up...at the last minute...and whallop me, but good! We don't have a tree, haven't had since Dave's Mother passed, but we have buckets of candles, greens, creches, wreaths and the like. Keeping it simple and real, more or less, is what works for us. For some reason, unknown to me yet, I decided I wanted an Advent Wreath. Now, Dave and I don't celebrate Advent, except for Sundays at church, but enjoy candles, greens, etc. so I thought an Advent Wreath a simple enough decoration.

~ inexpensive and humble beginnings ~

For those of you who say, "I'm not crafty"...this is for you. For those of you who say, "There's not enough money"...this is for you." Thrift stores and Everything for a Dollar store are now your friends. We don't have many thrift stores nearby but we do have dollar type stores galore. For this little project, you want an Everything for a Dollar store; they probably have a "real" name but it's that store where everything, literally, cost $1.00 each or, whoo hoo!, two for a dollar.

The candles were bought at thrift stores, the smaller poinsettia's, ivy and two smaller apple sprays and  were bought at the dollar store and the larger poinsettia's at Wal-Mart. Those were my expensive flowers, they cost $5 a bunch but gave me this Advent Wreath as well as another wreath for the barn. The green wreath was bought at Wal-Mart for $2. The whole wreath cost me about $12 but could have been made for a few dollars less and, best part, can be used year after year. I don't believe spending lots of money equates love; quite the opposite. I believe being creative equates love and try to be a good steward of what's been entrusted to me.

I've had the wire cutters for decades and, had I thought of it, could have bought some green floral wire. I started by cutting all the flowers from the sprays and then wrapping each individual flower around the wreath. The smaller poinsettia's looked rather peaked by themselves when placed up against the larger poinsettia's, so I bunched the smaller ones together and placed them on the left to off set the larger poinsettia's.

The beauty of this is...there's no wrong way, really, to make this Advent Wreath. Make it to your taste and budget and if you don't want to spend as much on flowers, place a bunch at the 6:00 position with some accent ivy throughout and it's still going to look as nice. My point is...don't let yourself get in the way of your creativity. If you make the wreath and aren't crazy about how it turned out, use it on the outside of a building but use it. With a little dusting of snow, which we've had all day here at the farm, an outdoor wreath looks like magic and isn't that what Christmas is all about? The magic of a babe in a manger changing the world and each of us who let Him into our lives. Please don't get caught up in the insanity of holiday merchandising; if you've family and friends to love on, Christmas can be perfect. A lighted candle, some cookies -home made or store bought but warmed in the oven- Christmas music on the radio and "I've got to have you to cuddle up to when winter comes" makes for a perfect December, Christmas and winter.

Blessings ~ creativity ~ excitement ~ good music ~ Babe in a manger ~ December ~ cookies ~ candles ~
 
Merry Christmas,
Sandra